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Thai omelets are really tasty and in Thailand, a country with so many amazing dishes, I find myself eating and ordering Thai omelet rice surprisingly often. I’ve ordered it from street food stalls in Bangkok, at tourist restaurants on Thai islands and it even appears on menus in the shopping mall food court in Chiang Mai. The Thai omelet is found all over Thailand and it’s easy to make, as well as being one of the cheapest foods to buy for budget travellers in the country.
What makes a Thai omelet so tasty?
Thai omelet rice, with a dipping sauce made from fish sauce, water, birds’ eye chillies, and a little sugar and lime juice. Delicious. This one was at a restaurant in Ko Phangan, Thailand.
It’s the seasonings and dressings that make something so simple, so special, and so distinctively Thai.
This recipe was originally published on World Travel Family, it has been republished here with permission from my wife to better serve our audience.
A Thai omelet with rice and ketchup picked from the menu at a restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. My kids were eating this one, hence the ketchup.
After returning from Thailand I wanted to create the Thai omelette flavours back home.
It was actually in my little farmhouse kitchen in Breb, Romania, that I started working on making an authentic-tasting Thai omelet at home.
I had no recipe, I was just going on instinct.
It turned out to be super easy to make a Thai-style omelet that tasted like the omelets in Thailand.
Thai Omelet Recipe
In Thai food there is always a balance of salty, sweet and sour, and a Thai omelet is no different.
Fish sauce gives a distinctly Thai-tasting saltiness, so this is what we used rather than straight table salt. The sweetness comes from a little sugar, and then you need the chopped chili, I think.
If you don’t have fish sauce soy sauce works fine too, or a mix of the two. If I’m out of one I happily substitute the other.
I don’t add water, vinegar, milk, or lime juice to my Thai-style omelets. My husband is an executive chef, he says he never adds water to omelets in his restaurants either.
I do like to add a squeeze of lime to the cooked omelet as fresh juice will hold its vitamins better.
The Thai omelets are always pretty “well done” with crispy curly edges from being fried in quite a lot of flavorless oil.
They’re almost, not quite, deep-fried. Make sure your pan is super hot before you throw in your egg mixture.
Don’t serve Thai-style omelets under-done as some do with Western omelets. This is my pet hate, I can’t eat raw eggs and always send an under-done soft, slimy omelet back.
Is that just me?
Did you know that head chefs test new employees by asking them to cook an omelet or poached egg? These are things they have to get right.
If you chop your green chilli super finely you likely won’t be able to taste them in the cooked omelette. Chopping them roughly is better so that you get the taste, texture and flavor of the vegetable as you chew.
Ingredients For a Thai Omelet
2 chicken eggs
1/2 a fresh green chilli
fish sauce (can substitute soy sauce)
sugar
lime juice to serve (optional)
oil or ghee for frying
You will need
a balloon whisk
a bowl, stainless steel is durable and doesn’t break easily.
a teaspoon for measuring
a frying pan or skillet, cast iron or stainless steel, non-stick if you don’t mind about the health risks
a stove, gas, electric, wood, or campfire
What to Serve With a Thai Omelette?
Thai condiments on a table in Bangkok. There are several essential condiments you can serve with your Thai omelet rice. The more the better!
Serve your Thai omelet with a mound of rice. For authenticity use a small bowl to shape the rice, or a scoop.
I quite often use a 1-cup measuring scoop to shape and serve rice from the rice cooker. Although we’re a British Australian family, we do use US measurements alongside British measurements at home. This site is written in American English too, which gets confusing sometimes, our main site is in UK English.
If you have Thai jasmine rice, that’s perfect with Thai omelets.
As you can see in the first photo, a little cucumber or other salad is often served alongside a Thai omelet and there should always be condiments.
On just about every restaurant or street food stall table in Thailand, you’ll find condiments for diners to add to taste. These can include sugar, ground peanuts, chili paste, dried chili flakes, and sauces or dips made with fish sauce, vinegar, lime, soy sauce and sugar.
A small wedge of lime also goes well with most Thai foods.
My kids put ketchup or chili sauce, even sweet chili sauce, on Thai omelets. That’s OK too but I’d rather stay away from highly processed foods like these.
Yes, I have seen Thai people sprinkle sugar on a Thai omelet. I wouldn’t but, there are no rules here!
You can garnish your omelet with a few coriander or Thai basil leaves from the garden, if you have them. Asian saw tooth coriander works too.
Should a Thai Omelet Contain Chilli?
I’ve eaten Thai omelets in Thailand with and without finely chopped chilies in the omelet itself. Sometimes they’re green, sometimes red chillies. It’s up to you, I like things hot. Some people call it “spicy” but there are no spices in a Thai omelet, just chopped vegetables, (actually, fruits) chili peppers.
Fresh chilies are way better than chili powder in an omelet, we never use chili powder at home, ever. if I didn’t have any fresh, I’d make something else. Chef always says that with Thai food, if you need to substitute more than 2 ingredients, make pasta instead!
I can’t remember if we ever made omelets at any of our cooking classes in Thailand. It’s been a while but we’ve taken several cookery courses. Maybe we did.
Most certainly chili should be available as some sort of condiment to add to taste with these omelets, either a sauce, paste, or dried red chili flakes. are needed to make this dish pop.
Variations on Thai Omelet
Making a Thai omelet. Stainless steel is my choice for mixing bowls.
Because we live in the tropics and I’m a gardener, we always have typical Thai fresh ingredients on hand.
One variation on the Thai omelet that we really like is with shredded lime leaves. Sometimes I grate in some fresh ginger or garlic too. I like to play around with recipes.
Actually, I never follow recipes, I just make things up and go by taste.
Omelets filled with minced pork (moo) are a thing in Thailand too, and they’re delicious. In this case, the minced meat is cooked surrounded by omelet, But that’s a recipe for another day.
Ingredients for Thai food, fresh from our garden. Lime leaves, chilies. ginger and lemon grass. Thai basil grows well too, that could be an optional addition or garnish.
Yield: 1
Thai Omelet
Thai omelettes are delicious! A simple omelette, a little spicy to have a taste of Thailand at home.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Ingredients
2 eggs
1.5 tsp of fish sauce
1/2 a fresh green chilli
1/2 tsp sugar
oil for frying
Instructions
Roughly chop half a fresh green chili. Use more if you like, leaving the seeds and ribs in if you want it hotter, removed for milder.
Add the fish sauce, sugar, and chopped chili to the eggs
Whisk
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the egg mixture when the pan is hot. Cook the eggs until set.
Serve with Thai condiments and rice.
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Nutritional information is automatically calculated and is only an estimate.
In these days of travel bans, we’ve had a lot of fun creating recipes from our travels back home in our domestic kitchen. We’ve made a lot of dishes from Thailand as Thai food is one of our favorite cuisines. Southeast Asian food generally is our favorite. Our garden is bursting with lemongrass, limes, galangal, and even little round Thai aubergines. The Thai basil is a perennial, almost a weed, and chilies grow by the Kg. Cooking, growing, and preserving food has got us through lockdown, sort of. It’s not been fun, but the taste of a Thai omelet can brighten lunch, breakfast or dinner. What’s your favorite Thai dish?
Chef is James Long, a professional chef, world traveler and endurance athlete. He has spent almost a decade traveling and working internationaly.
2 thoughts on “Thai Omelet Recipe (Why Thai Omelets are So Good!)”
There are actually more than a few variations to cook Thai omelette. Your recipe is certainly Thai enough and should look and taste like Thai omelette.
Thai omelette is simple, easy to make, cheap, and taste great with plain cooked rice. These are the reasons why we, Thais, love it so much.
There are actually more than a few variations to cook Thai omelette. Your recipe is certainly Thai enough and should look and taste like Thai omelette.
Thai omelette is simple, easy to make, cheap, and taste great with plain cooked rice. These are the reasons why we, Thais, love it so much.
Great! Can you give us any other tips?